Senators'(Burr, Feinstein) Encryption Measure Adds New Fuel to Apple-FBI Debate
April 13, 2016 — 3:15 PM EDT
Technology and Internet companies would have to provide government agencies with access to data when served with a court order under long-awaited draft legislation crafted by two top senators.
The proposal adds fuel to a fight being waged most visibly between Apple Inc. and the FBI over whether companies must give law enforcement agencies access to e-mails, texts, phone calls and other data that’s increasingly being encrypted into scrambled code to protect against hackers.
“I am hopeful that this draft will start a meaningful and inclusive debate on the role of encryption and its place within the rule of law,” Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said in a statement. Burr is writing the bill with his Democratic counterpart on the panel, Dianne Feinstein of California.
“The bill we have drafted would simply provide that, if a court of law issues an order to render technical assistance or provide decrypted data, the company or individual would be required to do so,” Feinstein said. “Today, terrorists and criminals are increasingly using encryption to foil law enforcement efforts, even in the face of a court order.”
Opposing ‘Backdoors’
Major technology industry associations, as well as a growing number of lawmakers, already have come out in opposition to the measure, arguing that it would force companies to create “backdoors” into their products and services that could make consumers and users less secure and expose data to hackers, spies and criminals.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-13/senators-encryption-measure-adds-new-fuel-to-apple-fbi-debate
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